PA Comic: Wednesday, February 15th - The Waiting Game

Sterica · February 2012

It’s true enough; we do have Vita software, but no Vita hardware, which is alternately worse and better. If I were creating a social media site about this phenomenon, I would call it “tantalizr.” I would register it, but the device comes out next week. There isn’t really enough time to do the IPO.

I wonder what sort of stimulation this “cartridge” might generate if I pressed the contacts to my tongue.

The Multiplayer portion of the Mass Effect 3 demo told me it was locked until the seventeenth, but then I tried to go in there anyway because I am an iconoclast. It worked, because apparently redeeming an Online Pass for Battlefield 3 is all you have to do, and I did that, and millions of other people have as well. This thing is no bullshit, and I was up way too late playing it.

The Single Player portion of the demo is just stuff I’m gonna have to play all over again, so I wish I hadn’t. The second bit has super interesting shit about Krogan society, which I thought was worth checking out, but still: you could restrict yourself to the multiplayer and still have gotten an excellent demo. The game comes out March 6th, so I mean… You could conceivably hold out. No? That’s fine, me neither.

Ths multiplayer, though. Holy shit. “Horde Mode” is an insulting characterization. The characters you create in this mode accrue experience and invest in skills just like a single player character would, except here you’re earning money that you use to buy what are essentially CCG style Booster Packs of varying quality. These packs contain single use items to help you through tough rounds, weapons and weapon upgrades, along with alien races to play as. It has many, many barbed compulsion mechanisms affixed to tentacles which dance and sway.

Traps for the reptile mind can only get you so far, though, and what surprised me the most about it is how well it comports itself as a shooter. It’s not just a weathered sidearm resting on an ornate doily. It’s very “heavy” in my own estimation, methodical, a more nimble version of Resident Evil that retains that series’ omnipresent gravity. It had dodges, and cover, but when you traverse an area the sense that you are committed to it is impressed upon you. I didn’t entirely know what to think when they announced this portion; the rumors I’d heard were that it was intended as a stand-alone product at some point. I tried to imagine what universe such a thing would be desirable in. This universe, actually; it is desirable in this universe, as soon as is humanly possible.

(CW)TB out.

we’ll be singing

Henroid · February 2012

I swear that a similar situation has happened in this comic at least once. I just can't put my finger on it.

Still, that's hilarious.

MalReynolds · February 2012

One of the early comics, where Gabe buys a computer game which is just an empty box and he has to

Wait for the entire game in a post-release patch

halkun · February 2012

The comic title is delicious.

SaraLuna · February 2012

I won't lie - I owned Twilight Princess and a small pile of accessories a week before the Wii came out.

Kreutz · February 2012

I did this with Lumines for the PSP. In retrospect the game was better before I actually played it.

-Tal · February 2012

Gabe is adorable in this comic.

Donovan Puppyfucker · February 2012

Back to regular noses again.

EDIT: Wait, my mistake. I thought the regular comic characters got the 'Trenches' nose treatment recently.

Tofystedeth · February 2012

I had several Xbox/360 games before I ever owned the hardware, because for years I lived with people that did.

jake_fehr · February 2012

I fell into that trap with both the PS2 (Xenogears) and Xbox 360 (DOA Xtreme 2). In both cases, I found the games used for a really good price and thought "What if these games had small print runs and I'm never able to find them again?"

...ah, for the days of my youth... *sigh*

Tleilaxu · February 2012

MalReynolds wrote:

One of the early comics, where Gabe buys a computer game which is just an empty box and he has to
Wait for the entire game in a post-release patch

An oldie, but a goodie.

This is the current practice for all MMOs.

Gaslight · February 2012

Tleilaxu wrote:

MalReynolds wrote:

One of the early comics, where Gabe buys a computer game which is just an empty box and he has to
Wait for the entire game in a post-release patch

An oldie, but a goodie.

Aside from the horrifying faces Gabe was experimenting with at the time.

ThreeCubed · February 2012

Kreutz wrote: »

I did this with Lumines for the PSP. In retrospect the game was better before I actually played it.

Sounds like my love life.

KalTorak · February 2012

This happened to me a weird number of times as a kid. First it was buying Starcraft and Baldur's Gate weeks before my family's computer actually arrived. Then it was buying Diablo 2 one the first day or so of our two-week vacation (away from the computer which lived at home).

I read the manuals and strategy guides so many times.

Henroid · February 2012

KalTorak wrote:

This happened to me a weird number of times as a kid. First it was buying Starcraft and Baldur's Gate weeks before my family's computer actually arrived. Then it was buying Diablo 2 one the first day or so of our two-week vacation (away from the computer which lived at home).

I read the manuals and strategy guides so many times.

Well, when you talk about computers, I've done this countless times in my life. I even have a big backlog worked up of games my PC can't play. Was constructing a new one but had to put it on hold. I'm sure lots of other people do this too.

Vyolynce · February 2012

pablo_price wrote:

I won't lie - I owned Twilight Princess and a small pile of accessories a week before the Wii came out.

Similar situation here. Accessories no, TP yes -- because my wife had pre-ordered the GCN version one year, then changed that pre-order to the Wii version the next year. So when the Wii launched, I had a copy of TP waiting for me. But was 6 people too late to get a launch Wii at Best Buy. I got mine on the next shipment, but in between...

PMAvers · February 2012

I had the reverse happen to me once when the GBA came out waybackwhen. Got mine, and we ended up going on a trip to France for two weeks the day after. Several shops there had the GBA games for sale, but the handheld themselves weren't out yet. Ended up buying a few games while over there for the return flight and train rides.

SaintElmosWire · February 2012

Had this with Pokemon Red :') Kid me just looked at it for hours and re-re-read the manual because Mozambique had the game but not the Gameboy, had to order that from South Africa.

Aurich · February 2012

You guys are getting me all kinds of nostalgic for the days when game manuals had things to read in them. When my brother was home on leave, we walked down to the store and got a bunch of new games to tear through. We stopped to get something to eat, and went to read the manuals, but they all just had a couple pages of generic installation guides, a control spread, and an advertisement insert. Disappointment.

Durkhanus · February 2012

I bought a game a full year in advance of when I finally had the hardware to be able to run it.

Sadly, it was Ultima IX. Dragon Edition, no less.

Tofystedeth · February 2012

KalTorak wrote:

This happened to me a weird number of times as a kid. First it was buying Starcraft and Baldur's Gate weeks before my family's computer actually arrived. Then it was buying Diablo 2 one the first day or so of our two-week vacation (away from the computer which lived at home).

I read the manuals and strategy guides so many times.

Around February or March when I was in 8th grade, we were at Sams or something and I saw they had a box set of Civilization, Colonization, and Master of Orion. I'd had Civ for years (since the time it had come on about 7 3.5inch floppies) but I'd never heard of Colonization, and a guy at my church had had Master of Orion and had mentioned it several times. I begged my mom to get it, and she relented, on the condition that she would hold on to it until the end of the semester. I agreed. The friend from church 'helped' by giving me the MoO strategy guide to read through.

That was the longest 3 fucking months of my life.

Penny Arcade

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PA Comic: Wednesday, February 15th - The Waiting Game

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